Assam State Consultation – Echoed the State’s will to Deliver to transform the nutrition landscape

To complement the efforts of the Government of Assam and share the learnings from this decentralized multi sectoral district planning exercise which are being conducted in the state, The Centre for SDGs, Coalition and UNICEF, Assam collaborated in organising a State Consultation on “Transforming the Food and Nutrition Landscape of Assam”in Assam on December 15, 2017 at Assam Administrative Staff College, Guwahati, Assam.

Hon’ble Addl. Chief Secretary and Agriculture Production Commissioner, Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, Government of Assam, Mr K K Mittal, attended the consultation as the Chief Guest and appreciated the efforts being undertaken by the Coalition, UNICEF joining hands together with the Assam State Government to accelerate progress and establishing Assam as a model state in the country. Mr Nazrul Islam, Secretary, Department of Social Welfare brought his early career experiences as a Deputy Commissioner in the districts and highlighted the need for capacity building of districts and block functionaries and suggested compounded efforts to achieve the targets set by the NNM by 2022. Mr Bhaskar Barua, Former Secretary-Agriculture, Government of India and Governing Board member, Coalition emphasized the need for climate smart nutrition sensitive agriculture and food based approach. Ms Sweta Patnaik, Officer in Charge and Dr Sameer Pawar, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF presented the benefits of good nutrition for child’s survival, growth and overall cognitive development and shared the global targets and how Assam needs to accelerate our progress to deliver. Coalition’s Chief Executive Officer, Basanta Kumar Kar, Odisha State Food Commissioner, Mr Ranglal Jamuda and Coalition Board Member, Mr N M Prusty apprised the participants on the recent nutrition narrative, shared experiences of the State Food Commission and called for a women led ‘Jan Andolan’ in the state.

Senior government functionaries, officials from the districts,development partners, donors and academicians attended the consultation and collectively discussed on strategies to be undertaken to realise the vision of the NNM and more specifically making nutrition a peoples’ movement in consonance with the ‘Jan Andolan’ emphasised by our Hon’ble Prime Minister for bringing the much desired behaviour changes required to effectively address various facets of malnutrition.

The recommendations of the state consultation will further jointly be presented by the Coalition and UNICEF.